Tablescapes Using Pottery

2/25/2013

Creative arrangements using garden pots and beautiful flowers and plants bring all the charm of the garden indoors to your dining room and breakfast table.

Any dining room can overflow with beauty when you bring the outside in with terracotta planters and garden flowers & grasses. Make sure you use appropriate sized containers and that their style and design adds to the feel of the room.

Use grasses, potted topiaries, flowers for fragrance and vines for depth. Fill a bowl with fruit for a burst of color, add bright sunflowers for large blooms that add tons of charm and color and mix containers for a good variety.

Using a breakfast or dining room table as a blank canvas you can create a lovely landscape with garden inspired planters. A centerpiece of dried or fresh flowers is always a classic. Small nursery planters with mosses and grasses can be tucked into your theme.

Top the planters with colorful gravel, cut glass or pot shards. Small flat river rocks give a very distinctive look that is decorative. Always continue the look further with the dishes and linens you use. Finish with candles and you have a wonderful tablescape.

Shrubs - Plain & Simple.

2/21/2013

Versatile and varied, tubbed shrubs enhance any garden planter. Many offer a different look for each season, brightening the patio area with changing leaf color, showy flowers and colorful berries. Others, by virtue of striking shape or dramatic foliage look like beautiful sculptures. Even ordinary shrubs when planted in beautiful garden containers can really shine and look quite exciting. All these shrubs provide a rich, textured background for blooming annuals and perennials.

Though slow growing shrubs naturally last longest in containers, almost any shrub can tolerate garden containers in general for many years. Start out with a container that's a few inches larger all around than the pot that carried the shrub home from the nursery.

You can plant shrubs at almost any time of year, though it's best to plant in Spring in cold weather areas. Many plants are happiest in standard potting mix but a few can handle a heavier mix.

In general potted shrubs need a monthly application of fertilizer throughout their growing season. Select containers that you love that add color, texture and design to the area you will place them in. Watch the root system on the shrubs to make sure that when it comes to time to repot that you are on top of it and the root ball doesn't become to bound up.

Great shrubs to use are boxwood, camellia, winter daphne, silverberry, Japanese aralia, fuchsia, gardenia, hydrangea, holly, juniper, oleander and oregon grape. Check these out and find the one that best meets your needs. Good luck.

February in the Garden.

2/19/2013

Here are a few suggestions for things to do in the garden or around the yard this time of year.

Sow seeds for lettuces like bibb, butter crunch and romaine. Use large garden pots with lots of loose soil. Start seeds like broccoli, cabbage,and cauliflowers indoors. If you have warm spot like on top of a refrigerator this is really good. New seeds love the warmth. You can also sow beets, bok choy, carrots, chard, collard greens, cucumbers, green onion, radishes, spinach, and turnips.

Cut back on the ornamental grasses that you have potted around the patio. Cut back bamboo, bull grass, bush muhly, deer grass and pink muhly to about 1 foot high. This will help with regrowth once the weather warms up a bit more. This is also a good time to plant some Eremophila or Valentine....it has big red blooms and will bloom from now into March. The foliage takes on a purple cast in cold weather and if you plant it in a bright white garden pot it is totally stunning.

Take some time and learn about low water gardening. Find rain barrels, native plants, gravel mulches and low bowl like terracotta containers. Look for garden shows to attend, magazines to read and websites to visit. The main thing is to have fun and enjoy yourself.

How to plant a BIG pot.

2/15/2013

Here are a few really tips to take into consideration when you want to plant a big garden container. The main think to remember is that the pot has some weight associated to it BEFORE you fill it with dirt and plants so make sure that you place it where you want it to go before you start. You an also use our Pot Lifter to help out if you decide to move it afterward.

1. Fill the pot with just enough fast draining potting soil that the top of the biggest plant's root ball will nest about 2" below the pot rim. Tamp down the soil to firm it but not compact it.

Mix in a granular fertilizer in the soil and then arrange the plants still in their nursery pots inside the big container in the spot you see them seeing planted. Once your design is set, remove the plants from the big pot, knock the plant out, rough up the root ball and position it in the big pot.

2. Fill the big pot with potting soil up to the top of the biggest root ball. Plant smaller flowering and foliage plants, packing the soil firmly around their root balls. Put trailers like moss, ferns and ivy around the pot edges. Give the plant a good watering.

3. Choose plants to coordinate with the garden container you are using or to go with the garden setting you are placing the pot into. choose a few permanent plants, such as low growing evergreens as anchors, then fill in around them with colorful annuals and perennials. Make sure the plants have the same needs for exposure, water and fertilizer.

Create an Evergreen Garden

2/13/2013

Evergreen garden plants come in many shapes, sizes and shades. Grouped in #containers they will provide you with year round interest and color. Include some golen or variegated foliage among your evergreens and choose contrasting leaf forms to make a striking group. Plant any time of year.

Materials needed:Terracotta pots of various sizes

Crocks or similar material for drainage.
Equal mix loam based compost and container compost.

Plant saucers if needed

Gravel

Slow release plant food granuals

Plants materials:

False cypress

Berberis darwinii

Berberis thunbergii

Pachsanra

Bergenia

Large shrubs such as this conifer, should be potted into a large container. Place plenty of crocks or drainage materials at the base of the pot drain hole. If the plant is at all potbound, tease the roots loose before planting in a new pot. Fill around the rootball with compost pressing it down firmly around the edges of the pot.

Smaller plants like the bergenia should be planted in a pot slightly larger than the existing one. Place crock pieces in the bottom, position the plant and then fill around the edges with compost. Repeat with remaining plants.

Plants will stay moist longer if they are stood in saucers of wet gravel. This group of plants will do well positioned in partial shade. Water regularly and feed with slow release plant food granules in the spring and autumn.

Keep Your Potted Garden Healthy

2/11/2013

Learn how to eliminate plant disease in your garden pottery and how to manage the conditions that can cause them. 5 great tips.

1. You need to start with the plants you purchase from your local nursery or landscape center. Read in garden books the many ways to spot troubles before you take them home. Always check the top of plants and inspect for root quality. The soil should not be pulling away from the outside of the planter or look dried out. This can mean the roots are bound up and not healthy. Dark or musty roots sticking out the bottom are not a good sign either. Make sure the garden planter you are going to use at home has been cleaned and dried out completely.

2. Keep an eye out for bugs. Viruses and bacteria can only enter a plant thru some sort of opening and bug damage provides that. Aphids are on of the most common carriers. Use good compost yard waster or purchase a good potting soil. Thorough composting generates high temps for extended lengths of time, which actually kill any pathogens in the soils. If you are not sure of the conditions of the compost pile avoid using it.

3. It is best to clean out your garden pots every fall, even if you live in a mild climate. This is not only an effective deterrent to disease but also a good way to control it. Disease can last on dead leaves and debris and attack the new leaves as they emerge in spring. If you are leaving stems and foliage to create winter interest be sure and remove them before new growth starts.

4. Make sure you use the correct fertilizer. You need to take care since too much of any fertilizer can burn roots, reducing their ability to absorb water. Pruning damaged limbs at the right time is very important. Trimming potted trees and shrubs in late winter is better than waiting until spring. Wounded limbs can become infected over winter allowing disease to become established. Always use sharp clean tools to make clean cuts that heal rapidly.

5. Plant disease resistent varieties - they can fight off the disease instead of succumbing to it. Nursery employees can help you identify the best varieties. Don't crowd the pots. Take care when spacing the plants and keep an eye on them. Crowded pots create their own humidity which allows disease like mildew to thrive. Improving airflow around your plants reduces this problem and is healthier for the roots sytems.

Indoor Succulents, Anthuriums, Lily

2/7/2013

Key points to help with indoor potted plants like succulents, anthuriums and peace lilies.

Succulents store water in their fleshy stems and leaves. Water sparingly and make sure the garden pots drain well or the plants will rots if their roots are sitting in standing water. Use shallow containers since the root systems are shallow.

Of course they are going to like a nice sunny window but you need to make sure that there are no drafts in the winter time or you might as well have them sitting outside. Use a well draining potting mix and top the pot with small stones or pebbles. Water every one or two WEEKS making sure the soil dries out completely between watering. When it comes to fertilizer use a liquid plant food and follow instructions.

Native to the American Tropics, Anthuriums combine glossy deep green leaves with bright red blooms. No flowers last longer indoors and can last up to 3 months from the time they open. Seen mostly in the Hawaiian Isles and tropics these plants are easy to grow if you give them bright light but not direct sunlight. Well draining pot soil helps and you should let them get slightly dry between watering. Dead head old flowers and keep them away from drafty windows and color areas.

Peace lilies are great indoors. they like low light and are made up of dark green leaves and showy white blooms. They also keep the air inside pure. Some varieties grow large and other stay small so be sure and talk to your nursery person. They like bright indirect light and if the leaves get into direct sunlight they can burn. Feed ever two weeks during growing time and water a couple time a year. Plant in a good size planterso that you won't have to repot the roots every year. You can also place smaller ones on a table indoors.

Just One Pot.

2/5/2013

Just one garden pot can hold an entire garden in miniature, a world of plants as visually compelling as a mixed bed and yet far easier to manage. That really is the beauty of containers. You don't need a big space to make a huge impact. What you do need of course are fantastic garden containers of different sizes, styles and colors.

There are so many different varieties to choose from in today's marketplace. Terracotta which is traditional, poly-resin for weight, concrete for durability and much more. When it comes to selecting the plants to pot then you need to make sure you get the ones best suited for the area you are going to place the potted container in.

When planting in the Southwest you can always go with the super durable cacti and succulents. A spiky aloe vera is lovely and grows rather large in most containers. For best drainage make sure the potting soil is formulated for cacti and not just ground dirt.

Make sure your containers have drain holes so the roots aren't sitting in standing water, which will rot them and use a granular slow release fertilizer at planting time. Water just once a month or so and you will have great success.

If you live in the Northwest part of the states you can use a variety of colors and forms in your potted containers. Feathery branches and variegated shrubs add lots of texture and design. Pot hits of color with dark and brights shades of red or burgundy. An initial handful of slow release fertilizer is all you should need to get the most out of your colorful burst.

Midwest folks can use larger container that over-flow with flowering plants. The routine for these kinds of mixes include watering daily if necessary to keep the blooms full and bursting with color. Balance with a liquid fertilizer and keep plants pruned so that they don't become root bound. Simply lovely.